Ten Things That Made Us Proud to Be a Miamian In 2012

There are a lot of things that go down in Miami that, if we were sane, would make us ashamed to live here. Of course, true Miamians don't really experience "shame" like other humans do. We prefer to fixate on the positive. You know, the things that we can brag about. So here are ten things that made us proud to be a Miamian this year.

People may make fun of us for our particular brand of democracy in the 305, but we proved our dedication to voting this year by waiting in lines in the hot Florida sun for hours on end, in some cases until two in the morning. Our local politicians and officials came off looking bad, but our local voters deserve a gold star in addition to that "I voted" for not abandoning the lines in mass.

When your city is home to two chart-topping "rappers" who now sacrifice quality, critical appeal and credibility for maximum commercial appeal, your city's rap scene may seem like it's becoming some sort of rave rap joke. Thankfully there's the Boss. The guy not only released a posse album, and official studio album, but two well received mix tapes (one of which was called The Black Bar Mitzvah and no one even blinked). He's racking up spots on best of lists, and few rappers in the game can touch him. He might even get an Oscar nomination for his song in Django Unchained. What did you do this year?

Even Texas has elected openly gay politicians to their state legislatures before, but Florida remained the biggest state never to do so. That changed with the election of David Richardson to a House seat from a Miami Beach district.